View full sizeIn this April 8, 2008, file photo, Tennessee coach Pat Summitt waves to the fans as her son Tyler holds the trophy after the Lady Vols defeated Stanford 64-48 in the NCAA college basketball national championship game at the Women's Final Four in Tampa, Fla.

Forget the trophies, the banners, the court with her name on it. These are just things, permanent reminders of what success can bring.

They don’t really define Pat Summitt. For that you need equal measures of teacher, mother, dictator, fire and compassion to produce what she really is ... coach.

And even though early onset dementia forced her to shift gears from that hand’s-on role to a more restricted advisory role at the University of Tennessee, Summitt was clear in Wednesday’s announcement that she is not leaving basketball or the Lady Vols.

“If anyone asks, you can find me observing practice or in my office,” Summitt said in a statement on Tennessee’s website. “Coaching is the great passion of my life, and the job to me has always been an opportunity to work with our student-athletes and help them discover what they want. I will continue to make them my passion. I love our players and my fellow coaches, and that’s not going to change.”

The change will come in the limitations imposed in her new role as head coach emeritus.

She can watch practice, but she can’t pull players aside and dole out some of her legendary wisdom. She can participate in general staff meetings and help break down film, but she can’t help run drills or explain the intricacies of the latest inbounds play.

Summitt can send emails, letters and handwritten notes, attend on-campus meals and accompany new coach Holly Warlick to the airport when she brings a recruit to campus for an official visit. But she can’t attend any recruiting function more than 30 miles from campus.

So that means no more exciting recruiting trips, such as the one to visit Allentown Central Catholic’s Michelle Marciniak in 1990. That one ended with Summitt going into labor in the Marciniak’s living room, and then high-tailing it home so her son, Tyler, would be born in Tennessee.

Anyone who is familiar with Lady Vols basketball and watched the team this season knew this day was near. Summitt turned pre- and postgame interviews over to Warlick, who served as the coach of note during the games. It was Warlick who paced in front of the bench, Warlick who chased down officials and Warlick who diagrammed plays on the white board during timeouts.

And it was Warlick who cried as she hugged the woman who made her a three-time All-American point guard after the Lady Vols were eliminated by Baylor in the NCAA tournament. After 27 years serving under her wing on the Tennessee staff, it will be Warlick writing the next chapter in the program’s history book.

Don’t expect things to be much different. Warlick promises the Lady Vols will still play Pat Summitt basketball.

The only difference is that it will be Warlick and her staff teaching it, not Summitt. It won’t be the woman who helped to forever change women’s basketball putting the Lady Vols through their paces. Instead it will be one of her foot soldiers.

We don’t know what kind of temperment Warlick will bring to Tennessee program, but there’s no way she can match the fire her mentor generated from those icy blue eyes.

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